Rainy season starts with first day of Ashar today

DHAKA, June 15: Today is the first day of the Bengali month of Ashar. After a long spell of hot weather, the rainy season starts with the month of Ashar with showers to cool the earth. In fact rain sets in our country in the middle of June and lasts up to the middle of September.

During the month of Ashar, the sky is overcast with deep black clouds that cover across the sky close to the earth suffers surface. Violent blasts of wind blow, lighting, flasher and thunder roar. The sun can hardly be seen. The rivers are full to the brim. The southwest monsoon over Bangladesh from the Bay of Bengal brings many vapours with it. As a result, there occurs heavy rainfall during the monsoon in our country.

Interestingly, the season has been depicted in poems and lyrics sometimes as a symbol of sufferings created by the separation from the beloved and at other times as a season of freshness and romanticism.

Cultural organisations celebrate first day of Ashar.  In the Bengali seasons, Ashar has a special appeal. June 15 is Pahela Ashar (first day of the rainy season on the Bengali calendar). Through cultural programmes - featuring recitation, dances and songs - Dhakaiites welcomed monsoon in a fitting manner. Throughout the city, cultural organisations held special programmes to mark the day.

Dhaka metro branch of Udichi Shilpi Gosthi welcome the season with a colorful programme at the Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA), Dhaka University. The event mainly featured songs on rain written and composed by Tagore, Nazrul and DL Roy, modern and folk numbers, recitation and several dance performances.